I Thought You'd Care
Chapter 30: Trojan Extra-Small
Chapter 30: Trojan Extra-Small
Nell’s POV
I should have stopped myself sooner. I should have realized as soon as my eyes met Niall’s in the mirror that I wouldn’t be able to resist him. He had that effect, and I hated it. The truth of the matter was that I was terrified of him.
Of course he had to kiss me. Of course he had to make me feel so loved—it all added to the terror that was Niall Horan. I had managed to pull away from his kiss, fleeing to my room so I could spend the night, yet again, alone. The way I wanted it. The way it should be.
Louis’ POV
I’d been on Harry’s side, at first, in the battle over Nell. He’d seemed like he cared about her so much, more than he ever had about a girl. Hearing Niall’s story though—and seeing the look of total love in his eyes—made me think twice. Niall looked like he was going to cry when he recounted what had happened. He almost made me cry. So when I looked between him and Harry at breakfast the next morning, on either side of Nell, I decided that, although it was ultimately Nell’s decision, I was all for Niall winning her. He just seemed to care so much more.
Liam had talked to her this morning. When she woke up, he had pulled her aside and told her that he knew. He came back looking relieved, and he said that she had forgotten to take her pills which would curb her urges for self-harm: if we ensured that she took them, she would be fine. It seemed like an easy fix, almost too easy, but I trusted both of them. If Liam believed that, then I would trust it.
I was shaken from my thoughts when Eleanor texted me. I glanced at the screen, and silently thanked her for the reminder. We had been talking, and had made a pretty important decision, and I was supposed to tell the lads.
From: El <3
Did you tell them yet?
To: El <3
Just doing it now! Love you
From: El <3
Love you too! I’ll see you later babe
“Who are you texting, Lou?” Harry asked me, in his gravelly morning voice. I’d heard countless girls call it sexy, but I thought he sounded like he had a lot of hair in his mouth. I suppose when you hear it every morning, it doesn’t really seem as cool as it used to.
“El. And, actually, I have something to tell you guys.” I said, looking up at them and shoveling more cereal in my mouth.
“Well, spit it out then, Louis.” Liam teased, flicking a bit of his food at me.
“I want El to move in with us, here. She would sleep in my room. It’s just for the summer, and when she’s on break from uni.” I had been nervous about asking the guys. Liam was the only one who’d been in a serious relationship as long as I had, so I was afraid the others would reject the idea, not understanding how important it was to me.
Zayn was the first to speak. “I think that sounds great, Lou.”
Liam nodded, slowly. “Well, we obviously have the space for it. We could probably use another voice of common sense, huh?” He shot a grin at Nell, who finally looked up for her cereal and returned the smile. She looked around and caught Niall’s eye, quickly looking away. I made a mental note to talk to her about the whole Harry vs. Niall situation.
Niall spoke up next. He had always loved Eleanor, so I wasn’t surprised that he answered enthusiastically. “That would be awesome. She should.” He turned over at Nell, but she wouldn’t look at him. He grimaced and looked away.
Harry finally spoke. He was the one I was most worried about. He liked the idea of his ‘bachelor pad’, only making exceptions for sexy girls that he was attracted to and could conceivably have (namely Nell). “Louis, if you guys both want that, I think that it would be a good idea.”
I nodded, smiling at them. “Nell? What do you think?”
She looked up and met my eye, and for the first time, I noticed how bright her eyes were. “Well, it’s not really my decision, is it? But I’m for it. I could use another girl in the flat with you lot.” She elbowed Harry in the ribs, who grinned cheekily at her. She smiled back, and my eyes went back to Niall, who was gritting his teeth and doing his best to act like he didn’t care. He was doing an awful job, so I tried to save him. “Niall?” I asked, and he looked at me, plastering a smile on his face. “Do you want to go play FIFA?”
“Yeah, Lou, that sounds good.” He said. He obviously needed a distraction. I cleared our places and walked over to the living room with him, where I proceeded to set it up. When I was sure that we were out of earshot, I asked, “Are you okay, Ni?”
He wouldn’t lie to me. “No.” He answered simply. “I don’t know what I did wrong. She was so grateful yesterday, until we woke up, and I tried to kiss her…I suppose that was a bad idea.” I tossed him a controller, and he took it. We started to play, and were about five minutes in when I spoke again.
“If it makes you feel any better, I’m with you on this one. I can tell that you care a hell of a lot more.”
“Well, thanks, Louis, but it doesn’t matter what you think if she likes him more. I just…I wish she would be easier to figure out. I wish I could know what I was doing right and what I needed to stop. And I wish she would stop making me think that I had her and then go after Harry.”
“If she was easy, she wouldn’t be worth it, though, would she? Just keep trying. She’s got a lot of walls up, but I think you can tear them down.” I managed to score on him as I said that, and he sighed.
“That’s the thing, though, Louis. I want to, but I don’t know if she’ll let me. I don’t think she will. I think she’ll keep making me think that I have, and then she’ll push me away. Maybe she likes doing it.” He sounded like he was going to cry.
“Have you guys, you know…gone at it?” I asked. Again, I knew he wouldn’t lie to me, and we’d always been able to talk freely about this kind of thing.
“Yeah.” He answered. “Oh, god, Lou, it was so good. It was so fucking good.”
I laughed. “Well, I think you’re good then. She seems like the kind of person who only sleeps with people she really likes.”
He sighed again. “Let’s just play, Louis. I really don’t want to talk about it.”
I obliged and shut up, letting him have his peace. We were going to the studio after lunch, and he always opened up easily after playing music, so I decided to leave it until then.
We finished up this match—he won, of course—and started another. Harry came in, followed by Zayn. I assumed that Liam was talking to Nell. I threw my controller to Zayn, realizing that I should probably join them.
I walked over to Liam’s room where, sure enough, his door was closed, and I heard them talking inside. I knocked, and after a few moments, Liam opened the door. “I want to know what’s going on, Li.”
He nodded and turned around, asking Nell something in a hushed tone. I heard her reply, and he turned back to me. “Alright. Come on in.”
Nell was sitting cross legged on his bed, looking like she really didn’t want to be there. “Hey, Louis.” She said. We really hadn’t talked before—I don’t know if we’d even had a full conversation—so it was a bit awkward, but both of us were close to Liam, so he acted as a mediator. “Alright, so, like I was saying, everyone but Harry knows, Nell. And I think Zayn might tell him, too. We just want to make sure that you’re okay. So, to be clear, if you take your meds, this won’t happen?”
He looked at her expectantly, and she nodded, glancing at me. I realized that I was standing next to the door, staring at her, so I broke out of my haze and sat at Liam’s desk chair.
“Okay, good. We’ll make sure that you do, then. But I want to know what made you want to do this. Was it Jake?” Liam asked.
Nell nodded. “Yeah. He texted me.” She pulled out her phone and gave us a look at one of the texts.
From: Jake
Not at home, huh? Don’t worry. I’ll find you.
“I’m lost.” I said. “Who’s Jake?”
Liam looked at Nell, nodding like it was okay to elaborate. “You’re not going to tell any of the others, right?” She asked, and I nodded. “Jake is my ex-boyfriend. We dated for a while a couple years ago. Let’s just say…he’s not the greatest guy. He got locked up, and I thought I was safe, but he just got released on parole. He’s 24.” I raised my eyebrows, noting the age gap. She noticed, and stated, “There were a lot of reasons that I dated him, Louis, and one of them was that he had a job, and my family needed to eat. He would put food on the table in exchange for…dating me. So I did it. Who wouldn’t? My older brother hated him. For good reasons. One day, though, I just couldn’t handle it anymore. I broke up with him. He was angry. I was afraid of him, so I called into the police that he had drugs. They searched his house, and obviously he did, so he got thrown in jail. I thought I would be safe. But now he’s out, and I’m terrified.”
I sat in my chair, speechless. Liam grit his teeth, looking angry, but I knew he had heard it all before. “And that’s why you’re here.” I said, realization dawning on me. “That’s why Liam invited you here, so you’d be safe from him.”
Liam spoke this time. “Yeah. There’s no way I was letting her be all alone at home with this guy around. Especially if he has a temper.”
“So Jake texted me, and I guess I just didn’t want to deal with it anymore.” Nell finished, and stared at her hands.
Liam looked her straight in the eye. “Don’t try this again, Nell, don’t. We’ll protect you. If he texts you again, just tell one of us, and we’ll protect you. That fucker will not hurt you.”
She smiled gratefully. “Thanks, Liam. I will.” She was about to say something else, when we heard Harry yell, “She fucking what?”
Liam winced. “I think maybe Zayn just told Harry.” His point was validated by heavy footsteps and a knock on the door. He didn’t wait for an answer, however, and he threw open the door. “Nell? Why?”
She looked like she didn’t know what to say, so I spoke. “Harry, we have it under control. Just go back to the living room.”
“Under control my arse, Louis. She tried to bloody kill herself! We have to do something.”
“We are doing something, Harry.” I stood up and walked over to him. “Harry, because of this thing going on between you and her and Niall, she doesn’t want to talk to you about it.” I said, quiet enough that no one but Harry heard it. The color drained from his face and he turned and left, muttering something under his breath.
Nell spoke up, quietly. “Lads, I wasn’t going to kill myself. I was just going to cut.”
I stared at her. “Really?”
“Absolutely. I’d never leave my little brother, even if Jake scared me out of my mind.”
“Well…okay, that makes me feel miles better. You can go, Nell.” Liam said, quietly. She nodded and left. I had assumed that she was going to her bedroom, but I heard the opening chords to a classical piece on our piano come from the music room. Turning to Liam, I said, “Liam, you’re acting like this isn’t a big deal.”
“I’m trying not to scare her. But this is actually a huge deal, mate. I’m just really not sure what to do. All we can do is make sure that she takes her meds, and we can get rid of this Jake guy.” Liam put his head in his hands. “I’m so worried about this…something about her just makes me care for her so much…I can understand why Harry and Niall are head over heels with her. If I didn’t love Dani, hell, I might be too.”
I nodded and sat next to him. Turning the conversation back to the problem at hand, I said, “What are we going to do about Jake?”
“I’m actually going to talk to our lawyer at management, and just get a little advice. Maybe we can get him locked up for harassment. Anything to get him out of the way. I’m also going to block his number so none of his texts get through. We’re not risking this happening again.”
“That sounds like it’ll work, mate.” I rubbed his back a bit. “Can I ask you something?”
He rubbed his eyes and looked at me. “Yeah, what?”
“What do you think about this whole Niall versus Harry deal?”
“I think they’re wearing her down.”
I laughed. Liam, always the caring one. “I mean…who do you think she likes? I’m never sure.”
“I honestly have no clue. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Now get out of my room, Tommo. I have to make some phone calls.”
Harry’s POV
As soon as Louis entered the room, he announced, not loud enough that Nell would be able to hear from the music room, where she was playing some classical piece, “Lads, she wasn’t going to kill herself. She was just going to cut.”
I felt a surge of relief rush through me. All of a sudden, I didn’t feel so on edge. I heard Niall from behind me. “Oh, thank god. I thought I was going to throw up. That’s…that’s still bad, but that’s better, at least. And Liam’s taking care of it, right?”
“Yeah, he is.” Louis answered. “Now let’s just act like it didn’t happen, okay? We should just be normal. It’ll help.”
I nodded as Louis sat down behind us. Zayn and I were playing a game of Call of Duty, but I took some of my attention off the game and asked, “So, Lou, when’s El moving in?”
“Next month, probably. I can’t wait. I’m going to get some every night.” I heard him snicker.
“Oh, fuck off.” I said, half to Louis, and half to Zayn, who had just killed me.
Louis laughed. “Harry, if you’re sexually frustrated, go outside and take your pick.”
I almost said, “Half of me wants to, and half of me likes Nell too much for that.” But I realized that Niall was sitting on the couch behind me, so I just said, “I’m waiting for someone.” We all knew who it was, but it was better than outright stating it.
“Oh, Harry Styles turning down some action? What’s going on?” Zayn teased, killing me again. Normally I was okay with their antics, but some part of me was just getting annoyed with the way that they assumed that all I was capable of was “Fuck ‘em and forget ‘em”
“Look, you lot, maybe it’s time I stopped with that. It’ll look a hell of a lot better to the media and management will get off of my arse.”
“Hey, mate, whatever you do, be safe. Use protection.” Niall teased in a TV voice, making the lot of us burst into laughter. I assumed from this comment that we were back on good terms. While we were still trying to recover from Niall’s comment, Nell popped into the room and handed me a small, purple, foil-wrapped package which I realized was a condom.
“Harold, be safe!” She said in a stern voice before starting to leave the room, making my cheeks flush and the others howl with laughter. In a last-ditch effort to save face, I yelled after her, “I need a large, thank you!” I heard her stifle a chuckle before she went to her room and emerged with a box, which she tossed to me and nearly hit me in the head.
I picked it up and read the front aloud. “Trojan extra-small condoms.” The boys burst into another fit of laughter, and Niall high fived her. “Why the fuck do you even have these? Are these even real?” I asked, laughing despite my embarrassment.
“I bought them a while back to give to someone, but I never did, and I honestly don’t know why I brought them here. They’re unopened, Harry, so you have 24 rounds of protected sex on the house.” She sat next to Niall, both laughing, and I grinned. Louis and Zayn were still rolling on the ground howling.
“I cannot believe that they actually make these. Could you imagine how awful you would feel if you were about to get it on and she handed you an extra small condom?” I was still staring at the box.
“Avoid the embarrassment and bring your own, hotshot.” She said. Louis and Zayn had finally recovered, and Louis went over and tugged her braid.
“That was the best one I’ve seen in a while,” He grinned and sat down on her other side. Zayn unpaused our game and we continued to play, me glancing at the box occasionally. I could almost—almost—deal with her hurting my pride if she was going to do in such style.
Nell’s POV
I should have stopped myself sooner. I should have realized as soon as my eyes met Niall’s in the mirror that I wouldn’t be able to resist him. He had that effect, and I hated it. The truth of the matter was that I was terrified of him.
Of course he had to kiss me. Of course he had to make me feel so loved—it all added to the terror that was Niall Horan. I had managed to pull away from his kiss, fleeing to my room so I could spend the night, yet again, alone. The way I wanted it. The way it should be.
Louis’ POV
I’d been on Harry’s side, at first, in the battle over Nell. He’d seemed like he cared about her so much, more than he ever had about a girl. Hearing Niall’s story though—and seeing the look of total love in his eyes—made me think twice. Niall looked like he was going to cry when he recounted what had happened. He almost made me cry. So when I looked between him and Harry at breakfast the next morning, on either side of Nell, I decided that, although it was ultimately Nell’s decision, I was all for Niall winning her. He just seemed to care so much more.
Liam had talked to her this morning. When she woke up, he had pulled her aside and told her that he knew. He came back looking relieved, and he said that she had forgotten to take her pills which would curb her urges for self-harm: if we ensured that she took them, she would be fine. It seemed like an easy fix, almost too easy, but I trusted both of them. If Liam believed that, then I would trust it.
I was shaken from my thoughts when Eleanor texted me. I glanced at the screen, and silently thanked her for the reminder. We had been talking, and had made a pretty important decision, and I was supposed to tell the lads.
From: El <3
Did you tell them yet?
To: El <3
Just doing it now! Love you
From: El <3
Love you too! I’ll see you later babe
“Who are you texting, Lou?” Harry asked me, in his gravelly morning voice. I’d heard countless girls call it sexy, but I thought he sounded like he had a lot of hair in his mouth. I suppose when you hear it every morning, it doesn’t really seem as cool as it used to.
“El. And, actually, I have something to tell you guys.” I said, looking up at them and shoveling more cereal in my mouth.
“Well, spit it out then, Louis.” Liam teased, flicking a bit of his food at me.
“I want El to move in with us, here. She would sleep in my room. It’s just for the summer, and when she’s on break from uni.” I had been nervous about asking the guys. Liam was the only one who’d been in a serious relationship as long as I had, so I was afraid the others would reject the idea, not understanding how important it was to me.
Zayn was the first to speak. “I think that sounds great, Lou.”
Liam nodded, slowly. “Well, we obviously have the space for it. We could probably use another voice of common sense, huh?” He shot a grin at Nell, who finally looked up for her cereal and returned the smile. She looked around and caught Niall’s eye, quickly looking away. I made a mental note to talk to her about the whole Harry vs. Niall situation.
Niall spoke up next. He had always loved Eleanor, so I wasn’t surprised that he answered enthusiastically. “That would be awesome. She should.” He turned over at Nell, but she wouldn’t look at him. He grimaced and looked away.
Harry finally spoke. He was the one I was most worried about. He liked the idea of his ‘bachelor pad’, only making exceptions for sexy girls that he was attracted to and could conceivably have (namely Nell). “Louis, if you guys both want that, I think that it would be a good idea.”
I nodded, smiling at them. “Nell? What do you think?”
She looked up and met my eye, and for the first time, I noticed how bright her eyes were. “Well, it’s not really my decision, is it? But I’m for it. I could use another girl in the flat with you lot.” She elbowed Harry in the ribs, who grinned cheekily at her. She smiled back, and my eyes went back to Niall, who was gritting his teeth and doing his best to act like he didn’t care. He was doing an awful job, so I tried to save him. “Niall?” I asked, and he looked at me, plastering a smile on his face. “Do you want to go play FIFA?”
“Yeah, Lou, that sounds good.” He said. He obviously needed a distraction. I cleared our places and walked over to the living room with him, where I proceeded to set it up. When I was sure that we were out of earshot, I asked, “Are you okay, Ni?”
He wouldn’t lie to me. “No.” He answered simply. “I don’t know what I did wrong. She was so grateful yesterday, until we woke up, and I tried to kiss her…I suppose that was a bad idea.” I tossed him a controller, and he took it. We started to play, and were about five minutes in when I spoke again.
“If it makes you feel any better, I’m with you on this one. I can tell that you care a hell of a lot more.”
“Well, thanks, Louis, but it doesn’t matter what you think if she likes him more. I just…I wish she would be easier to figure out. I wish I could know what I was doing right and what I needed to stop. And I wish she would stop making me think that I had her and then go after Harry.”
“If she was easy, she wouldn’t be worth it, though, would she? Just keep trying. She’s got a lot of walls up, but I think you can tear them down.” I managed to score on him as I said that, and he sighed.
“That’s the thing, though, Louis. I want to, but I don’t know if she’ll let me. I don’t think she will. I think she’ll keep making me think that I have, and then she’ll push me away. Maybe she likes doing it.” He sounded like he was going to cry.
“Have you guys, you know…gone at it?” I asked. Again, I knew he wouldn’t lie to me, and we’d always been able to talk freely about this kind of thing.
“Yeah.” He answered. “Oh, god, Lou, it was so good. It was so fucking good.”
I laughed. “Well, I think you’re good then. She seems like the kind of person who only sleeps with people she really likes.”
He sighed again. “Let’s just play, Louis. I really don’t want to talk about it.”
I obliged and shut up, letting him have his peace. We were going to the studio after lunch, and he always opened up easily after playing music, so I decided to leave it until then.
We finished up this match—he won, of course—and started another. Harry came in, followed by Zayn. I assumed that Liam was talking to Nell. I threw my controller to Zayn, realizing that I should probably join them.
I walked over to Liam’s room where, sure enough, his door was closed, and I heard them talking inside. I knocked, and after a few moments, Liam opened the door. “I want to know what’s going on, Li.”
He nodded and turned around, asking Nell something in a hushed tone. I heard her reply, and he turned back to me. “Alright. Come on in.”
Nell was sitting cross legged on his bed, looking like she really didn’t want to be there. “Hey, Louis.” She said. We really hadn’t talked before—I don’t know if we’d even had a full conversation—so it was a bit awkward, but both of us were close to Liam, so he acted as a mediator. “Alright, so, like I was saying, everyone but Harry knows, Nell. And I think Zayn might tell him, too. We just want to make sure that you’re okay. So, to be clear, if you take your meds, this won’t happen?”
He looked at her expectantly, and she nodded, glancing at me. I realized that I was standing next to the door, staring at her, so I broke out of my haze and sat at Liam’s desk chair.
“Okay, good. We’ll make sure that you do, then. But I want to know what made you want to do this. Was it Jake?” Liam asked.
Nell nodded. “Yeah. He texted me.” She pulled out her phone and gave us a look at one of the texts.
From: Jake
Not at home, huh? Don’t worry. I’ll find you.
“I’m lost.” I said. “Who’s Jake?”
Liam looked at Nell, nodding like it was okay to elaborate. “You’re not going to tell any of the others, right?” She asked, and I nodded. “Jake is my ex-boyfriend. We dated for a while a couple years ago. Let’s just say…he’s not the greatest guy. He got locked up, and I thought I was safe, but he just got released on parole. He’s 24.” I raised my eyebrows, noting the age gap. She noticed, and stated, “There were a lot of reasons that I dated him, Louis, and one of them was that he had a job, and my family needed to eat. He would put food on the table in exchange for…dating me. So I did it. Who wouldn’t? My older brother hated him. For good reasons. One day, though, I just couldn’t handle it anymore. I broke up with him. He was angry. I was afraid of him, so I called into the police that he had drugs. They searched his house, and obviously he did, so he got thrown in jail. I thought I would be safe. But now he’s out, and I’m terrified.”
I sat in my chair, speechless. Liam grit his teeth, looking angry, but I knew he had heard it all before. “And that’s why you’re here.” I said, realization dawning on me. “That’s why Liam invited you here, so you’d be safe from him.”
Liam spoke this time. “Yeah. There’s no way I was letting her be all alone at home with this guy around. Especially if he has a temper.”
“So Jake texted me, and I guess I just didn’t want to deal with it anymore.” Nell finished, and stared at her hands.
Liam looked her straight in the eye. “Don’t try this again, Nell, don’t. We’ll protect you. If he texts you again, just tell one of us, and we’ll protect you. That fucker will not hurt you.”
She smiled gratefully. “Thanks, Liam. I will.” She was about to say something else, when we heard Harry yell, “She fucking what?”
Liam winced. “I think maybe Zayn just told Harry.” His point was validated by heavy footsteps and a knock on the door. He didn’t wait for an answer, however, and he threw open the door. “Nell? Why?”
She looked like she didn’t know what to say, so I spoke. “Harry, we have it under control. Just go back to the living room.”
“Under control my arse, Louis. She tried to bloody kill herself! We have to do something.”
“We are doing something, Harry.” I stood up and walked over to him. “Harry, because of this thing going on between you and her and Niall, she doesn’t want to talk to you about it.” I said, quiet enough that no one but Harry heard it. The color drained from his face and he turned and left, muttering something under his breath.
Nell spoke up, quietly. “Lads, I wasn’t going to kill myself. I was just going to cut.”
I stared at her. “Really?”
“Absolutely. I’d never leave my little brother, even if Jake scared me out of my mind.”
“Well…okay, that makes me feel miles better. You can go, Nell.” Liam said, quietly. She nodded and left. I had assumed that she was going to her bedroom, but I heard the opening chords to a classical piece on our piano come from the music room. Turning to Liam, I said, “Liam, you’re acting like this isn’t a big deal.”
“I’m trying not to scare her. But this is actually a huge deal, mate. I’m just really not sure what to do. All we can do is make sure that she takes her meds, and we can get rid of this Jake guy.” Liam put his head in his hands. “I’m so worried about this…something about her just makes me care for her so much…I can understand why Harry and Niall are head over heels with her. If I didn’t love Dani, hell, I might be too.”
I nodded and sat next to him. Turning the conversation back to the problem at hand, I said, “What are we going to do about Jake?”
“I’m actually going to talk to our lawyer at management, and just get a little advice. Maybe we can get him locked up for harassment. Anything to get him out of the way. I’m also going to block his number so none of his texts get through. We’re not risking this happening again.”
“That sounds like it’ll work, mate.” I rubbed his back a bit. “Can I ask you something?”
He rubbed his eyes and looked at me. “Yeah, what?”
“What do you think about this whole Niall versus Harry deal?”
“I think they’re wearing her down.”
I laughed. Liam, always the caring one. “I mean…who do you think she likes? I’m never sure.”
“I honestly have no clue. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Now get out of my room, Tommo. I have to make some phone calls.”
Harry’s POV
As soon as Louis entered the room, he announced, not loud enough that Nell would be able to hear from the music room, where she was playing some classical piece, “Lads, she wasn’t going to kill herself. She was just going to cut.”
I felt a surge of relief rush through me. All of a sudden, I didn’t feel so on edge. I heard Niall from behind me. “Oh, thank god. I thought I was going to throw up. That’s…that’s still bad, but that’s better, at least. And Liam’s taking care of it, right?”
“Yeah, he is.” Louis answered. “Now let’s just act like it didn’t happen, okay? We should just be normal. It’ll help.”
I nodded as Louis sat down behind us. Zayn and I were playing a game of Call of Duty, but I took some of my attention off the game and asked, “So, Lou, when’s El moving in?”
“Next month, probably. I can’t wait. I’m going to get some every night.” I heard him snicker.
“Oh, fuck off.” I said, half to Louis, and half to Zayn, who had just killed me.
Louis laughed. “Harry, if you’re sexually frustrated, go outside and take your pick.”
I almost said, “Half of me wants to, and half of me likes Nell too much for that.” But I realized that Niall was sitting on the couch behind me, so I just said, “I’m waiting for someone.” We all knew who it was, but it was better than outright stating it.
“Oh, Harry Styles turning down some action? What’s going on?” Zayn teased, killing me again. Normally I was okay with their antics, but some part of me was just getting annoyed with the way that they assumed that all I was capable of was “Fuck ‘em and forget ‘em”
“Look, you lot, maybe it’s time I stopped with that. It’ll look a hell of a lot better to the media and management will get off of my arse.”
“Hey, mate, whatever you do, be safe. Use protection.” Niall teased in a TV voice, making the lot of us burst into laughter. I assumed from this comment that we were back on good terms. While we were still trying to recover from Niall’s comment, Nell popped into the room and handed me a small, purple, foil-wrapped package which I realized was a condom.
“Harold, be safe!” She said in a stern voice before starting to leave the room, making my cheeks flush and the others howl with laughter. In a last-ditch effort to save face, I yelled after her, “I need a large, thank you!” I heard her stifle a chuckle before she went to her room and emerged with a box, which she tossed to me and nearly hit me in the head.
I picked it up and read the front aloud. “Trojan extra-small condoms.” The boys burst into another fit of laughter, and Niall high fived her. “Why the fuck do you even have these? Are these even real?” I asked, laughing despite my embarrassment.
“I bought them a while back to give to someone, but I never did, and I honestly don’t know why I brought them here. They’re unopened, Harry, so you have 24 rounds of protected sex on the house.” She sat next to Niall, both laughing, and I grinned. Louis and Zayn were still rolling on the ground howling.
“I cannot believe that they actually make these. Could you imagine how awful you would feel if you were about to get it on and she handed you an extra small condom?” I was still staring at the box.
“Avoid the embarrassment and bring your own, hotshot.” She said. Louis and Zayn had finally recovered, and Louis went over and tugged her braid.
“That was the best one I’ve seen in a while,” He grinned and sat down on her other side. Zayn unpaused our game and we continued to play, me glancing at the box occasionally. I could almost—almost—deal with her hurting my pride if she was going to do in such style.
8/19/13